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It's difficult to believe that the Hoher Markt , now surrounded by dour, postwar buildings and packed with parked cars, is Vienna's oldest square. Yet this was the heart of the Roman camp, Vindobona, a conduit of which you can see beneath the shopping arcade on the south side of the square (Tues-Sun 9am-12.15pm & 1-4.30pm; oS25/?1.82). The square's centrepiece is Fischer von Erlach's Vermahlungsbrunnen , or Marriage Fountain, depicting the union of Mary and Joseph by the high priest, for which there is no biblical evidence and few iconographical precedents. Even more remarkable is the ornate bronze baldachin and gilded sunburst, held aloft by Corinthian columns with matching ram's-head urns, under which the trio shelter. The real reason folk crowd into Hoher Markt, however, is to see the glorious Jugendstil Ankeruhr , a heavily gilded clock designed by Franz Matsch in 1914, which spans two buildings owned by the Anker insurance company on the north side of the square. Each hour, a gilded cut-out figure, representing a key player in Vienna's history, shuffles across the dial of the clock, and at noon tour groups gather to watch the entire set of twelve figures slowly stagger across to a ten-minute medley of slightly mournful organ music. The identities of the figures, which range from Marcus Aurelius to Josef Haydn, are revealed on the clock's street-level plaque. Before you leave, check out the brackets on the underside of the clock bridge, which feature Adam, Eve, the Devil and an angel. There's one other sight worth seeking out in the streets around Hoher Markt: the secular medieval Neidhart Frescoes (Tues-Sun 9am-12.15pm; oS25/?1.82), at Tuchlauben 19, discovered in 1979 during rebuilding works. Executed around 1400, the wall paintings are patchy but jolly, some of them illustrating the stories of the Minnesinger (aristocratic minstrel) Neidhart von Reuenthal, others depicting a snowball fight, a ball game, dancing and general medieval merriment.
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